Sir William Richard Benyon DL (né Shelley; 17 January 1930 – 2 May 2014) was a British Conservative Party politician, Berkshire landowner and high sheriff.
[1] Benyon was the eldest of four sons of Vice-Admiral Richard Shelley (1892–1968) and his wife, Eve Alice Gascoyne-Cecil, daughter of the Right Reverend Lord (Rupert Ernest) William Gascoyne-Cecil, Bishop of Exeter.
[citation needed] He retired from the Navy as a Lieutenant in 1956 and became a member of The Castaways' Club soon thereafter.
Benyon never held government office, but was PPS to Paul Channon 1972–74 when he was Minister for Housing, then was an Opposition whip from 1974 to 1976.
His daughter, Mary, wife of Tom Riall, was appointed High Sheriff of Berkshire in April 2020.